At New Orleans Hornets Feb. 25th, 8:00 PM

That is probably one of the most insightful things I have seen written about Amir. Good call.

I tried to imagine who Amir could be. He's not worm. He's not JMax. He's not Sheed. He's not Ben Wallace. He's not A'm;a;r;e, he's not Shaq.

The closest I could come up with is Hakim Warrick, and even that is not a good fit.

It is very rare for a player that light, to be that unskilled offensively. Now maybe he creates the "Amir model" and if so good for him.

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I think in terms of style of play, Ben Wallace is easily the closest. Hakim Warrick is the inverse Amir. They just have an identical build. If you combined their strengths you'd have a very talented player on both ends of the floor that doesn't have much of a head for the game....

As for the Ben comparison.... Ben is/was without question much smarter and stronger, but that's the difference between a role player and a franchise changing player like Ben. Both impact the game almost solely with all out effort. Both are athletic and quick for "Big" men. Amir has the better shot by a mile, but he doesn't do a good job of finding open spots in order to utilize it. And even though Ben was "pretty good" defensively man-to-man, it certainly wasn't his strong point on defense, much like AJ. The biggest difference is BBall IQ, and Ben's incredible ability to alter shots without picking up fouls (in his prime).

To be fair, at Amir's age today, Ben was playing for Virginia Union still, and had 6 years left before his 1st DPOY season in Detroit, but I don't think the instincts (or frame) can be taught in any amount of time.

I honestly think Amir's bball IQ is fine. He'll make passes that are surprisingly aware. He has better hands that a lot of our bigs when guards throw tough passes to him (because he's anticipating them). He knows that MC wants effort plays out of him and he complies, i.e. he smart enough to not go out there looking for his own shots and post opportunities. He's also a hyper aware help defender and offensive pick setter.

He just needs to keep his hands out on defense, dial back the aggression a bit, and learn when to give up on a play.

If you were a coach, this would be a much better starting point to have a young player than someone who had the opposite problems. Tough to fix bad hands and lack of effort.

I honestly think Amir's bball IQ is fine. He'll make passes that are surprisingly aware. He has better hands that a lot of our bigs when guards throw tough passes to him (because he's anticipating them). He knows that MC wants effort plays out of him and he complies, i.e. he smart enough to not go out there looking for his own shots and post opportunities. He's also a hyper aware help defender and offensive pick setter.

He just needs to keep his hands out on defense, dial back the aggression a bit, and learn when to give up on a play.

If you were a coach, this would be a much better starting point to have a young player than someone who had the opposite problems. Tough to fix bad hands and lack of effort.